Happy Monday!

April 29, 2013October 20, 2013Leave a comment

Yes! Happy Monday, You Beautiful People!!!

Thinking of you and praying for you today. I’m actually praying that we’d be tickled pink to start this day today! Wouldn’t that give satan a kick in the teeth?!?!!! I’m convinced that with as many people who dread Monday mornings (or Monday altogether), he thinks he has our joy on lock today more than any other day. But we can have victory in Jesus. Remember to take your medicine.

May you have a blessed, encouraged and positive start to the work week–whether you work in your home, outside of your home, or not at all. I’m praying blessings, effectiveness, provision and fellowship with the Lord for you today.

I’m finishing up Beth Moore’s 10 week bible study called Believing God and it has been phenomenal. This is the prayer that I’m praying for myself as I start my day today:

My Lord and my God, I thank you for another day to know You and believe You. Whatever means you may choose to increase my faith today, I commit myself to that end.

~ Beth Moore in Believing God

Believing God takes courage but it also takes us on a fantastic ride. You may think your life has enough excitement, for good or for bad, but dare to actively believe God in every area of your life and allow the Lord to thrill you with His revelations and His goodness and your life will never be the same.

Pray this prayer with me today?

On Love . . .

April 17, 2013April 29, 2013Leave a comment

“Love heals. Heals and liberates. I use the word love, not meaning sentimentality, but a condition so strong that it may be that which holds the stars in their heavenly positions and that which causes the blood to flow orderly in our veins.” ~Maya Angelou in Mom & Me & Mom

Thinking about when was the last time I loved on purpose . . . As a mom and a wife, most of the time my love is set on default; it’s just what I do. Love is in every move I make, every sacrifice, every offering . . .the sweet good morning hugs and hellos, enthusiastically and intently listening to the same story more than twice, giving lessons, watching movies with tired eyes and a heavy mind, embracing, caring, sharing . . . But, I asked myself today as I reread this impactful, little passage, when was the last time I made love my ambition, purpose, aspiration, intent . . .my ulterior motive? In this world of broken hearts and distracted minds, surely there’s someone in my life right now who needs me to consider this . . .and act on it . . .

illustration by my niece, Nazaria Metz

His

April 15, 2013April 17, 20132 Comments

All my fears and inhibitions fade away when I recognize . . .

. . .that I am His . . .

. . .my identity is in Christ . . .

. . .who I really am is in Christ . . .

. . .everything I need is in Christ . . .

. . .Christ is my source. . .

. . .Christ is my self-esteem . . .

. . .He is BIG in me!!!!

Hallelujah! You are BIG in me!!!!

…… lying with the quiet calm that comes with the end of a day. It’s rather late, so perhaps you won’t read this until morning but my mind is swirling and looping with all of the events, conversations, people and responsibilities that filled my Monday. However the thought that keeps circling back to the front of my mind is my identity in Christ.

I can sense my savior’s urgent message for me to identify myself by no other standard than by the word of God. And I believe He wants that for you as well.

I was sharing with the ladies in bible study tonight that for so much of my life I have been running from being labeled a statistic, running from my past, past mistakes made and poor choices executed, doing my best to define and position myself so that I can control how people see me and therefore what they think of me. I have been able to accomplish and have some good things in my time but they became the standard by which I identified myself. If I were to list even a couple of these things it would only be perpetuating the very thing that the Lord is trying to get me to pull away from: identifying myself by the standards of this world. I am nothing more and nothing less than what the word of God says that I am. I draw my strength, my value and my identity directly from the heart and mind of the almighty God.

Now, how does that sit with you? Does finding your identity in Christ and not in the pieces of the American Dream you currently do or don’t possess scare you? If you lost absolutely everything you have today, perhaps your own version of a Job experience, would you have any clue about who you are? Take heart. He wants us to know the truth about ourselves. As I explore His word to find myself, I am taking refuge in the fact that I am completely His and I’m putting this on repeat:

Gracefully Accepting Higher

April 12, 2013April 17, 20132 Comments

I read this post by Stephanie Bryant in December and it was brilliant. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

Huni and I recently moved back to his hometown to do full time ministry. I was hesitant and excited about the move but once we got there I wanted everything around me to rise to our new normal. I knew that things were going to be different but I wanted to hurry up and discover the differences so that I could contain them, normalize them . . .control them. Uggggh! Why oh why do we do this to ourselves? New marriage, new job, new home, relocation, new baby, new friend . . .whenever there is a change, we look for a new normal and what I have discovered in my recent experience is that, with God, there is no such thing.

You see, God is always calling us higher. Even when we’re in a season that makes us feel low to the ground, He is calling us higher because He is calling us to reflect Christ. (Romans 8:28-29)

We’ve been living in our new town for about 8 months and it wasn’t until this week that I really starting getting into my groove and not feeling like a complete nutcase, chasing my tail in a 3 diameter circle going 75 mph. I have learned, the hard way, that we have to give ourselves the grace of time to allow a change to morph into whatever it is going to become. And we have to divorce the world’s notion of the new normal. If the Lord answers our prayers and calls us to something immeasurably more than we can ask, think or imagine, why would we want to relegate it to what is considered to be normal?

Here is merely a glimpse of the reality that we are called to everyday:

“so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky.” ~Philippians 2:15 NIV

“And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” ~Daniel 12:3 ESV

“But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” ~1 Peter 2:9 ESV

Oh that we would learn to live comfortably in His marvelous light instead of the dull comfort that our yearning for normal yields.

We are not called to look longingly out of the window in search of what was good in our yesterdays. So many times in His word, God likens us to stars! Reminder: No two stars are alike (every star is unique). Stars get their light from the sun (they are fueled, daily, by the most powerful source of light). Their brilliant light shines forth from more than a billion miles away, yet their light reaches us and lights up the sky each night (they are potent, consistent and highly effective).

So, it’s been eight months and I’m just now beginning to get settled in . . .day by day and moment by moment I am going to continue to ease into this season of my life and instead of looking for the myth of the “new normal” I’m looking for each moment presented to me to shine like the star I have been called to be.

Pondering the Gospel

April 10, 2013April 12, 20131 Comment

I had a friend describe a situation that she was in a short time ago where she chose to divulge to a large group of women some of the things that she was struggling with at the time. It had much to do with singleness and likely most of the women in the audience could relate, whether they wanted to admit it or not. The list was less than pretty. The details, though vague, were of a very personal nature because, in order to tell the truth, she had to expose parts of her person that those not close to her might not otherwise know. But she poured herself out thin, viscous, and abundant in front of the women anyway. After the session was done, quite a few women came up to her and asked her, “How did you do that? How were you able to just tell your business like that? I can’t believe you just shared all of that with everyone.” My friend responded with a couple Christ pointed sentences to explain where her “courage” came from but then she ended with the most intriguing response of all. She said, “I really believe that the gospel is enough.”

I’ve been thinking of my friend’s final response and I’m just really taken by it.

Well, what is the gospel? According to John Piper, “the gospel is the news that Jesus Christ, the righteous one, died for our sins, rose again eternally triumphant over all His enemies, so that there is now no condemnation for those who believe but only everlasting joy.”

So, essentially, my friend was saying that because Christ, the righteous one, who is eternally triumphant and gives no condemnation but everlasting joy to all who believe, died for her sins, she can struggle in the light. . . with NO shame nor embarrassment . . . and receive strength to overcome the evil one and live victoriously today and everyday. . . and by so doing, invite others to do the same.

yeaaaaaaaaa . . . . my head is spinning too . . . .